


The new agent’s choice

by Hypatia_66



Series: Early days [14]
Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV)
Genre: Beating, Challenge Response, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-05 20:07:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16374206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hypatia_66/pseuds/Hypatia_66
Summary: LJ Short Affair challenge. Prompts: push, greenIllya can see no reason to stay with UNCLE in New York





	The new agent’s choice

That was the last time… the very last time he’d put up with it. He’d ask for a transfer… back to Berlin or even London. He stumbled up the steep stairs to his apartment, with the horrible sensation that at any moment the nausea he had so far contained would shame him before he got inside. But he made it, just. He looked at himself in the mirror over the handbasin, saw the green tinge fade to white and felt the cold sweat dry on his skin. He rinsed his mouth, dried hands and face on a towel and lurched out into the bedroom.

He lay crumpled on top of the bed for a while, trying different positions to ease the discomfort and willing it to dissipate. It didn’t, of course, you just had to wait. After all, he was used to it; it had been his lot, one way and another, for … oh, hell, not again! And he dragged his tired and battered body back into the bathroom.

<><><> 

Mr Waverly was tapping his fingers on the file in front of him. His agent watched and wondered where his strange little partner had got to.

“Shall I call him?” he said.

“I’ll give him another two minutes to get here, Mr Solo. I suppose it’s just possible he’s got himself lost.”

“I guess so. I did myself when I was first here.”

And with that, the door slid open and Kuryakin entered. “My apologies, sir” he said quietly, “I was unavoidably detained.” He met Solo’s eyes and smiled slightly at the latter’s nod.

“Let’s get on, then, gentlemen,” said Waverly and gave the circular table a push to send the file round to the two other men. He watched Kuryakin speed read the first page and pass it to his partner who read it more slowly and who therefore collected all the pages to complete them several minutes after the Russian had finished. Kuryakin’s eyes dropped to his lap and Waverly saw him surreptitiously press a hand to his abdomen.

Solo finished reading. “I assume you will devise a plan to combat this threat,” said Waverly and waved a dismissal. “Oh, Mr Kuryakin, a moment, please.”

Solo left, glancing back with a certain interest.

“Something wrong, Mr Kuryakin?” said Waverly after a moment, looking him up and down.

“Wrong, sir?”

“You seem to be in pain – or am I misreading the signals?”

“Pain, sir?”

“Mr Kuryakin, don’t take me for a fool. What is wrong?”

The overlong fair hair flopped forward as Kuryakin’s head dropped, but Waverly forbore to comment. “Well?” he said.

“Yes sir.”

“Yes, what, sir?”

“I am in pain, sir.”

“Why?”

The fair head lifted. “I was beaten up, sir. I failed to prevent it.”

“By whom?”

Kuryakin was silent. Waverly waited. “I could look at the footage from the cameras that are stationed around this building,” he said calmly. As he had, in fact, done.

Kuryakin’s eyes met his. “Yes, sir?”

“Please be assured, Mr Kuryakin, that I have matters in hand. You don’t have to – I think the word is sneak… or is it snitch? – on your fellow agents.”

Kuryakin stared at him. Waverly smiled reassuringly. “I won’t tell, either,” he said.

The young man returned a wavering smile. “Thank you, sir.”

“But I suggest you tell your partner. He will make it his business to – I think you agents say, ‘have your back’. That’s his job, as, of course, it is your job to have his.”

Kuryakin looked alarmed at the prospect of betraying weakness, let alone sneaking, to his new partner. Waverly recognised the symptoms and said, “Don’t think Mr Solo will despise you – he won’t. He is highly respected in this organisation and his support and regard for you will trump any prejudice manifested by others.”

Kuryakin looked taken aback. Support and regard? Solo? Napoleon hadn’t been noticeably supportive or shown him any obvious regard – whatever that meant.

“Yes, sir,” he said.

“It’s up to you, but he can be relied upon.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Waverly watched him leave. The little Russian was more than capable of dealing with the behaviour of the more juvenile of his colleagues, but it was Solo’s friendship that might keep him here.

<><><> 

Napoleon was in the corridor.

“Oh! Napoleon. Were you waiting for me?”

“I thought we might go out for lunch somewhere before we leave. Fancy a steak, or do you prefer Chinese?”

“Oh… You choose.”

“Okay. You look a bit done in. Can you manage a steak, or would you prefer something a bit gentler on the stomach?”

So, he knew. Kuryakin looked at him suspiciously. “I might manage a steak,” he said.

“Great. I know just the place. Melts in the mouth, gentle on the stomach, makes everything seem fine in the world.” Solo looked at him. “Sound good?”

“It sounds very nice.”

<><> 

“What do you think?” he asked. “Better than anywhere else in the world? Or just very nice?”

“Better than anywhere I’ve tried so far,” said Kuryakin, ever the accurate reporter.

“All right. Now, my friend,” Solo began. Kuryakin looked up at his use of that word. “Yes – my _friend_ – I mean that. Let’s have it.”

“Have what?”

Solo smiled. “What happened last night after I left you? They cornered you, didn’t they? Five of them.”

“Why ask, if you already know?”

“Because between us, we must persuade them that it isn’t worth their while. I guess you caused as much damage as they did?”

“Yes. So, they will try again.”

“Not if we deal with them together.”

“How will that conquer simple prejudice?”

“I have a cunning plan, partner.”

Kuryakin smiled sceptically but said, “All right. Let’s have it.”

<><><><> 


End file.
